


Babysitting Uncle Pense'

by Cherrys_Criminal_Mind



Category: Criminal Minds, Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Babysitting, Cute, Fluff, Other, Spencer with kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 11:08:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6236266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherrys_Criminal_Mind/pseuds/Cherrys_Criminal_Mind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>JJ reluctantly asks Spencer to babysit, after a previous night ended with a cookie dough disaster. Henry knows exactly which buttons to push with his “Uncle Pense” in order to push the house rules to the limit. </p>
            </blockquote>





	Babysitting Uncle Pense'

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay this time Spence?“ JJ asked her colleague, remembering back to the previous time he’d babysat for her and she’d come home to find him stood on a stool in her kitchen, scraping cookie dough off the ceiling.

“It’ll be fine….. Just go! You and Will have had these tickets for months now. We’re gonna have tons of fun, aren’t we Henry?” Reid bent down and picked his five year old godson up, the little boy wrapping his arms around his neck tightly and resting his head against his.

JJ looked at the pair, both grinning widely at her, her sons long blonde hair blending into Spencers messy brown locks. She reached her hand out, smoothing Henry’s hair.

“Are you going to be good for Spencer?”

“I’m always good for Uncle Pense, Mommy. You know that.”

She laughed, still slightly dubious after the last time but eager to go out none the less. She and Will had had tickets to this show booked for six months, and she’d nearly had a meltdown this morning when her normal sitter had called her and cancelled, having come down with a case of strep throat. She’d called around everyone, telling Will they’d have to cancel, when he’d suggested Spencer.

JJ had been reluctant. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her best friend and colleague with her son, she’d named him godfather after all. It was just……. Spencer sometimes acted like a big kid around Henry and he didn’t seem able to tell him no. Whatever Henry wanted, Spencer tended to give in to, and Henry knew it. JJ had given him strict instructions this time to behave and to listen to his “Uncle Penses” instructions and NOT to ask him to do things he knew he wasn’t allowed to. Henry had just given her a cheeky grin, which had caused her to sigh internally. Hopefully Spencer would be stronger willed this time.

But she doubted it.

Will came through, jacket in hand. He kissed his son on his head. “You be good for Spencer, little man.”

“You ready to go, cher? ” He asked JJ. She nodded, kissing Henry and thanking Reid again. They both followed her to the door to wave her and Will off.

“They’ll be fine, cher.” Will glanced at her as he pulled out of their drive. “Spencer knows what he’s doing.”

“Yeah and so does Henry, he’s got Spencer right where he wants him.”

“Well he obviously takes after his mother then, knows how to charm people and get them to do what he wants.” He replied, dragging his words out with his southern drawl.

“Me?! It’s you that manages to have people eating out of the palm of your hand within seconds of meeting them…. ”

They both laughed, looking forward to the night ahead of them.   
……..

Spencer watched his friends driving off noticing the anxious look JJ still had on her face. If only she hadn’t come home early the last time, he’d have been able to clean the cookie dough off the ceiling and she’d have been none the wiser. For a five year old, Henry certainly had a good throwing arm on him. But then again, Spencer remembered that JJ had said she’d been good at sports at school.

“So, half an hour before bed time. What do you wanna do Henry Enry?” He walked back inside, closing the door and lowering his godson to the floor. JJ had already bathed him and gotten him ready for bed.

Henry shrugged, looking up at him. “An hour before bed time Uncle Pense.”

“No…. Half an hour. You go to bed at 7:30pm, you were there when your Mom told us both remember.” He knelt down to Henry’s level. “So you can’t try and pull that one again. Half an hour. So what shall we do?”

Henry tugged on the ends of his Lilo and Stitch pajama top, his face screwing up slightly as he thought.

“Legos?” He asked hopefully, knowing that once Uncle Pense starting building something, he’d lose track of time and he’d get to spend more time with him.

“Legos it is.” Spencer agreed, loving having an excuse to play with the small building blocks. He’d secretly hoped Henry would suggest that activity, but didn’t want to push his luck. He always suggested lego.

Henry slipped his hand into his godfathers, tugging him up the stairs to his bedroom, dragging his huge lego trunk out from the corner of the room and dropping down onto the floor next to it. Spencer joined him on the floor, and the two set about building and chatting as they worked.

“What you building, Henry Enry?” Reid asked, looking after and seeing the little boy with his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration.

“A Lion…… I’m making a zoo for Mommy.” He pushed his blonde locks out of his face and went back to concentrating.

Okay….. Spencer could kind of see it.. Orange, yellow and black blocks together. He guessed the model made of grey blocks that Henry had already assembled was perhaps an elephant, and the small black and white model was a penguin?

A while later Henry looked over at his godfather, seeing his tongue poking out between his lips in concentration.

“What are you building Uncle Pense?” He asked, recognising the shape of the grey and white blocks but not remembering where from.

“The USS Enterprise.” Spencer replied, not looking up.

“You always build that.” Henry now remembered seeing it the last three times they’d played with lego.

It was true, Spencer did.

“But I want to make it better than last time.”

Henry looked up at the big wall clock above his bed. The small hand was on the eight and the big hand was on the ten. He knew that when it was bed time, the small hand was between the seven and eight and the big hand was on the three and zero. He giggled to himself.

Spencer heard the laugh and looked up, following Henry’s gaze

“Shi…. Sugar! Bedtime for you young man… Don’t tell your Mom.” Reid started gathering up his lego pieces, dropping them back into the trunk quickly as Henry sat with his bottom lip pushed out.

“Don’t give me that look. You heard what your Mom said. JJ will kill me. Quickly choose a bedtime story and get under the covers.”

Okay…. Bedtime story. Henry selected his favourite, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Although he knew Uncle Pense knew it off by heart already so he technically didn’t need the actual book, but he liked to look at the pictures. He climbed under his covers waiting patiently for his godfather to put away the rest of the blocks.

When he was done, Reid climbed on the bed with him and Henry handed him the book, snuggling into him.

“Again?” Spencer asked him, wrinkling his nose up at the choice. Henry nodded, looking at him with a determined expression on his face.

“We gotta get you some new reading material.”

He settled down and began to read.

Fifteen minutes later, after Henry had made him read through the book three times, turning the pages painstakingly slowly and inspecting every picture, Spencer finally announced it was time for him to go to sleep. Hopping of the bed, his kissed his godson forehead and switched on his night light.

“Bedtime okay. Sweet dreams Henry Enry.”

The little boy just pouted at him, looking so much like JJ did when someone told her no that it was unbelievable. Spencer laughed and pulled the door, not quite closing it all the way, before heading downstairs. Sitting at the kitchen table, he pulled out some paperwork he’d bought home from the office with him.

Around forty minutes later he heard a noise and glanced up, seeing Henry in the door way, his blue flannel bedtime security blanket trailing behind him.

“What’s wrong buddy?”

“There’s a monster in my room.”

“There’s not a monster in your room Henry.” Spencer closed his files, raising his eyebrows at him.

“There is too!” The boy exclaimed. “And it turned my night light off.”

Sighing, Spencer stood up and took his godsons hand, leading him back upstairs.

“Let’s have a look.”

Entering Henry’s room, Spencer turned the overhead light on and went straight over to the plug with the night light in it. The night light was indeed off.

He jiggled it about a few times, flicking the switch on and off. Nothing.

Hmmmm.

He tried it in a different socket. Still nothing.

“Do you have another one?” Henry shook his head.

“Can you sleep without it?” Another shake.

“What about with the big light on?” As expected, another shake.

Reid checked his watch, JJ and will would be right in the middle of the show now, the interval just over. He couldn’t phone her now.

“Okay. You can come downstairs with me for a bit okay. But as soon as your Mom texts me to say she’s on her way, you have to scurry back into bed and pretend to be asleep and I’ll get her to sort the night out light as soon as she’s back okay. And you can’t tell her I let you stay up!”

Henry nodded solemnly at him, trying to hide his happiness.

“Can we colour? I have some Monsters Inc colouring sheets from kindergarten.” He asked hopefully.

“Okay. We can colour for a bit. But you can’t make a mess. No felt tips this time, just crayons.” Last time they’d coloured together, Henry had started to doodle on Reid’s arm and Reid had let him. Not realising that Henry had picked up Wills permanent sharpies. He’d walked around with childish scrawls of cats and dogs on his arms for three days before it had faded.

They went back downstairs and Henry fetched his sheets and crayons, settling in at the kitchen table and handing Spencer an outline of Sully to colour in, getting stuck into a picture of Mike and Boo.

When he looked up fifteen minutes later, he was as appalled as a five year old could be.

“Why have you coloured him brown?” He asked his godfather.

“Because he’s a bear right?” Reid look confused. He’d not watched this film, the original having come out well before Henry was born.

The look on the little boys face was one of utter disgust. “He’s not a bear, he’s a monster… Duh….Have you never watched it?”

Spencer shook his head.

Henry hopped off his chair and went and stood by his Uncle Pense, holding his hand out.

Spencer hesitated initially before he took it and the little boy tugged at him, leading him back through to the living room.

“Sit.” He instructed him, pointing to a spot on the couch.

Reid did as he was instructed, watching as his godson switched on the TV and inserted a dvd into the player, before joining him back on the couch.

“See…. He’s a monster and he’s blue.” He pointed at the screen, before snuggling against Spencer again.

“He still looks like a bear to me.”

‘Grown ups’ Henry thought to himself. ‘They just didn’t get it sometimes.’  
…….

“Please please please PLEASE, don’t let there be cookie dough on the ceiling again.” JJ begged as Will turned the key in the door.

She’d text Reid fifteen minutes ago to say they were on their way back, not getting a reply from him.

They entered the house, seeing lights flickering in the living room and the sound of a Dvd home screen playing on the TV. She recognised the sounds.

“Why the hell is Spencer watching Monsters Inc?” She muttered to her husband, following him to the living room.

She heard Will let out a small chuckle as he got there before her.

When she caught up with him, she saw why.

Spencer was sprawled out on their couch, his feet dangling over the edge.

Their son was snuggled tight around him, his head rested on his chest and Reid’s arm around him.

Both were snoring softly.

“Cher….. Do you think he took the bulb out of his night light again?” Will asked her quietly, sounding amused.

“I think he did.”

She crept over quietly and untangled her sleeping son from her friend, being careful not to wake either of them. She handed him to Will, before grabbing a blanket from the back off another chair and floating it down gently over him.

“We need to get him different night lights. He’s far too clever for his own good.” Will whispered to her.

“I agree. But at least there’s no cookie dough on the ceiling this time.”


End file.
